How could it be fair to kill Canaanite children? Here’s some important background. In a prior post we saw that the Canaanite childhood was full of terror and loathing. How could it not be when some friends and siblings were burnt to death in the arms of the bull-headed god Molech, family members raped them, …
How Could It Be Fair to Kill Canaanite Children? Read More »
In teaching every semester on why God allows evil, I’ve learned that many Christians do not understand the nature or value of free will. Indeed, many years ago I too struggled with what free will is all about, but found an unlikely ally in science fiction. Sci-fi books, movies, and television programs frequently feature free …
Probably the thorniest question of all when it comes to the Canaanite conquest is why couldn’t Israel adopt Canaanite children? In ancient wars where parents died, soldiers faced three alternatives for the children: (1) take their lives; (2) leave them to starve and be eaten by animals in the desert; or (3) adopt them. Obviously leaving …
Although most of Bart Ehrman’s final chapter, “Suffering: The Conclusion,” is just a rehash, he does make one last point worth examining. When I teach on suffering I remind my students that whatever else we think about suffering, we should remember that Christianity is primarily about God the Son suffering for humankind. Ehrman gives his …
Ehrman’s Problem: the Conclusion–His Book’s Title Is Misleading Read More »
I mentioned previously that most apologists argue that the reason God allows evil is that it is a greater good for God to allow evil than to create a world where evil is impossible. For God to create a world with significantly free beings, He must allow these free beings to use their free will …
Beginning on his first page of his chapter on “The Mystery of the Greater Good,” Ehrman relates his disappointment with God (125-126): If (IF!) there is a God, he is not the kind of being that I believed in as an evangelical: a personal deity who has ultimate power over this world and intervenes in …
Ehrman’s Problem 14: He Misunderstood God’s Promises Read More »
Next we come to one of the weirdest aspects of Ehrman’s problem project. Ehrman grouses (121-122): I don’t know if you’ve read any of the writings of the modern theodicists, but they are something to behold: precise, philosophically nuanced, deeply thought out, filled with esoteric terminology and finely reasoned explanations for why suffering does not …
Ehrman’s Problem 12: Our Answer too “Finely Reasoned” Read More »
Ehrman begins his fourth chapter, “The Consequences of Sin,” by detailing horrific things humans do to each other. Then he asks “How can human beings… treat other human beings in this way?” (96). Indeed, much suffering is the result of people hurting each other.
In my first series on Ehrman’s book God’s Problem, I reviewed some of his random ramble through the free will defense (there’s more to come). Now in his chapters two and three we turn to an even longer ramble spanning 69 pages!—of what he calls “the classical view of suffering”: that sometimes people suffer because …
Ehrman’s Problem 7: The “Classical View” & the Holocaust Read More »
Ehrman says free will defenders often tell him humans would be like robots without free will (11, 12, 197, 229). Well, of course they tell him that. Rightly! And on this point Ehrman never disagrees because free will is essential to who we are. Consider that God, if He had wanted to, could have created …
Ehrman’s Problem: He’s Confused About the Free Will Defense Read More »
